John Dalhuisen: "The Crimean Tatar people have been deliberately targeted by the de facto local and Russian authorities in a wave of repression aimed at silencing their dissent and ensuring the submission of every person in Crimea to the annexation"

“As the most visible and cohesive group in Crimea opposed to the Russian occupation, the Crimean Tatar people have been deliberately targeted by the de facto local and Russian authorities in a wave of repression aimed at silencing their dissent and ensuring the submission of every person in Crimea to the annexation. Through the adoption wholesale of the repressive Russian legal framework in Crimea, which was in itself a violation of international law, the Russian authorities have prosecuted and forced into exile virtually all dissenting voices, including key leaders and activists within the Crimean Tatar community. As well as being used as a tool against the Crimean Tatar minority, this legal framework has had disastrous consequences more generally for freedom of assembly and a free media in Crimea. However popular Crimea’s annexation may be with many on the peninsula, there is no escaping the fact that it has come at a very high price indeed for those that oppose it.”